This Underground Railroad sculpture commemorates the people in the Battle Creek area who assisted enslaved people to freedom while risking their lives.
During the 1840s and 1850s, fleeing enslaved people passed through Battle Creek on their way to Canada. People, mainly Quakers, in the area provided them with a safe place, protected them from slave catchers (after the US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850), and helped them reach the next station safely.
Kellogg Foundation commissioned Ed Dwight to design the memorial in 1993, and it was dedicated on October 24th, 1993, near the Kellogg House. Among the other monuments the foundation generously funded in Battle Creek is a statue of the abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth that sculptress Tina Allen designed in 1999.
At 28 feet long and 14 feet high, it is the largest Underground Railroad monument worldwide.
It depicts the famous Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) while guiding a group of enslaved to freedom. She stands next to the local abolitionists, Underground Railroad conductors, and station masters Sarah Bowen Hussey (1808-1899) and her husband Erastus Hussey (1800-1889) as they help enslaved people to a safe place.
Erastus Hussey was a politician who advocated for abolition and was an editor in the Michigan anti-slavery publication: Liberty Press. The Husseys have helped more than a thousand fugitive slaves to freedom.
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In her late twenties, she escaped and became a free woman who made it her life mission to free as many enslaved people as possible. Tubman became an Underground Railroad conductor, returned to Maryland 19 more times, and helped tens of people escape slavery. During the civil war, she led hundreds to freedom as a scout and spy in the Union Army. She continued advocating and working for equal rights till her last days.
The Bronze plaque reads:
“Memorial to the Underground Railroad.
From the 1830s to 1861, thousands of slaves in the southern United States courageously escaped northward to freedom to what became known as the Underground Railroad. Along this secret network, ‘conductors’ like Battle Creek’s Erastus and Sarah Hussey, whose likenesses are captured in this memorial, took great personal risks to ensure the safety of escaping slaves. Harriet Tubman, known as the Black Moses, was a national heroine of this epic struggle and is depicted leading another brave family away from the shackles of slavery.
This memorial honors the Underground Railroad and is dedicated to the strength of the human spirit in the quest for freedom.
Ed Dwight, Sculptor.
Denver, Colorado. 1993.
This sculpture was made possible by a gift from the Glenn A. Cross Estate and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.”
Click here to explore places about Harriet Tubman and here to read about women abolitionists on the Underground Railroad.
Underground Railroad Sculpture 2 12 19
The nation's largest monument to the Underground Railroad. The 28-foot long, 14-foot high bronze statue depicts abolitionist Harriet Tubman, known as "Black Moses," and local "conductors" Erastus and Sarah Hussey as they lead a group of runaway slaves to safety. Designed by sculptor Ed Dwight. Near the Kellogg House in downtown Battle Creek. Built by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to honor men and women who operated the Underground Railroad, as well as courageous fugitives who fled north to freedom.
